Milk Journey

Milk’s journey from the farm to you

It's a fine day today and the milk tankers have come from nearby Dairy farms to drop milk off at the Anchor factory.

Before the milk flows into the factory, our quality controllers test it to make sure it meets Anchor's high standards... if it's not up to scratch, it's rejected right then and there.

How milk is collected and processed

Separation

The Anchor milk is separated into cream and skim milk by a separator. It spins, throwing the heavier skim milk to the outside and keeping lighter cream in the centre.

Standardisation

We add the right amount of cream to the right amount of skim milk, depending on which milk we are making at the time. This is how we make our blue milk with 3.3% fat, and lite milk with 1.5% fat content.

Homogenisation

Homogenisation spreads the cream evenly throughout the milk, so a plug of cream doesn't form at the top of the milk bottle. Most milk is homogenised to ensure consistent taste and nutrition from the first glass to the last drop in the bottle.

Pasteurisation

In pasteurisation, we heat the milk to a minimum of 72°C for at least 15 seconds to make the milk safe to drink. The milk is then rapidly cooled back down to 4 degrees Celsius to get it ready to go into our bottles

How milk is bottled

The milk is then ready to fill into Anchor's Light Proof™ bottle. Bottle sizes range from 300mL through to 3L.

The bottles are labeled and filled with milk. Our quality controllers test the milk again – to make sure it meets Anchor's high standards.

The induction sealed caps are screwed on, heat sealed then the milk is packed into crates and stored in the cold storage room. Refrigerated trucks back up to the storeroom and are packed with Anchor milk.

How milk is delivered

The milk is then delivered to stores and supermarkets around the country. We produce enough to sell over 100,000 bottles of Anchor milk to New Zealand per day... for you to drink and enjoy.

This process happens everyday to ensure kiwis are enjoying the freshest tasting milk. All milk starts off the same; it's how we take care of it that matters.